FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – New England Revolution president Brian Bilello teased a pair of international center back signings via Twitter on Monday, and on Wednesday half of the mystery was revealed when Antonio Mlinar Delamea was officially announced as the Revs’ newest addition.
Delamea – along with the yet-to-be-announced second central defender – is a critical piece to the Revolution’s offseason puzzle as the club aims to shore up a defense that conceded what head coach Jay Heaps called “too many goals” in 2016.
“Obviously a big piece of what we were trying to do is add pieces in the back,” Heaps said on Wednesday morning. “Toni comes with some experience. As a 25-year-old, he’s got a lot of experience.”
Delamea arrives from Slovenian champions Olimpija Ljubljana, where he rose through the ranks for the past six years to ultimately wear the captain’s armband; a fact that Heaps noted, similarly to when Xavier Kouassi arrived last February after captaining Swiss side FC Sion.
The hard-tackling center back also recently made his international debut with Slovenia, featuring in the second half of a friendly against Poland.
“He’s a natural defender,” Heaps said of Delamea. “He plays hard. He plays the position the right way. He wins balls, he tackles hard, he’s good in the air, but he’s really got the instincts of a defender.
“We feel that adding quality people will make us a lot better on the field.”
While Heaps has called the signing of international players “a little bit of a process,” the timing of Delamea’s arrival is of paramount importance. In joining the Revs during the first week of preseason, he’ll have the maximum amount of time to adjust to his new surroundings.
“Whenever we’ve brought players in during preseason, we’ve felt like they’ve acclimated a little bit quicker than when they do in the summer,” Heaps said. “Especially for a player like Toni who’s coming from a different culture and a different [time zone], it’s important that he gets here and gets adjusted.”
Heaps said the next step will be officially announcing the second center back signing – something he indicated would happen very soon – and then continuing to build out the roster throughout the next six weeks, particularly as the Revs assess the group of trialists who’ve joined their preseason camp.
“We feel good about some key positions, but now it’s about adding some pieces to upgrade what we already have, and seeing if we can get better in certain areas,” Heaps said. “That’s why we have a lot of guys in camp right now … We’ll see if we can add some experience that way, as well.”
